www.GayPeoplesChronicle.com

• Pride Guide 2008

GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE A-9

Not the same

Pair of documentaries go from being different to being treated differently

by Kaizaad Kotwal

Cinemax, HBO's sister channel, will screen two strong documentaries focused on gay America for Pride month, continuing the commitment of the two outlets to further the visibility of LGBT citizens across the country.

When I Knew asks when people knew

HBO

""When I knew' is not a moment anyone quickly forgets," Barbato notes. "It's the moment someone realizes they are radically and unacceptably different from their friends and family. For many of us, it is the moment we learn to hide and lie about ourselves. It can be a lonely and frightening time."

At www.wheniknew.com, one will find a series of streaming videos of personal sto-

ries gathered by the filmmakers at this year's Sundance film festival. HBO and the filmmakers set up a booth, and for a week people came in to record their stories. This is a wonderful addition to the work captured in the documentary.

Freeheld is about the seminal legal fight undertaken by Lt. Laurel Hester in 2005. A New Jersey police officer dying of cancer, Hester took on the Ocean County freeholders (commissioners) to make sure that her pension When I Knew would be transferred to her domestic partner Stacie Andree. A year later, New Jersey passed

they were gay. Freeheld, which won this year's Academy Award for Short Subject Documentary, is about the government's denial of basic civil rights to a dying lesbian police officer.

The first film is based on the 2005 book of the same name by photographer Robert Trachtenberg. He tells eighty very personal stories about the moment when LGBT people first realized they were different. Not gay or lesbian or transgendered, just different, because young children often cannot define these feelings.

Directed by documentarians Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, the film uses vintage photos and home movies to explore the personal testimonies of the people on

screen.

a civil union law.

As much a story about undying love as it is about courage in the face of impending death, Freeheld takes on even greater resonance given that New York Gov. David Patterson last week ordered the state's agencies to start recognizing LGBT marriages from other states and countries.

Directed by Cynthia Wade and produced by Wade with Vanessa Roth, this is important viewing, especially in a presidential election year when so much about the future of LGBT equality hangs in the balance.

Both When I Knew and Freeheld wonderfully complement each other as they each, in different ways, capture this season of Pride.

Classically designed from a progressive point-of-view.

384

Zaremba.

Building Better Places to Live.

15-YEAR TAX ABATEMENT MAINTENANCE-FREE LIVING 1.5% BELOW MARKET INTEREST RATES

With a contemporary perspective on urban living, Woodhaven offers alluring, affordable coach homes and townhomes near Cleveland's cultural and medical hub. Right on the new Euclid Corridor Silver Line, this unique community is minutes away from the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospital. Stop by Saturdays and Sundays from 1-6 PM or by appointment to discover an ideal way of life and a better place to live at Woodhaven.

WOODHAVEN

E. 84TH & CHESTER 216.231.5353 ZAREMBAHOMES.COM

LEARN the Facts

Big Tobacco EXPLOITS,

MISLEADS, and

TARGETS our communities.

www.lgbttobacco.org

The LGBT community smokes 40-200% MORE

than the general population.

$$ $

GET

FIRED UP!